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js popup

I advise against using a pop-up unless well justified. Better to make a link with target="_blank" or better yet, let the user decide. There's a reason pop-up blockers are so popular. But if you insist you could use something like this:
window.open('url_here','name_here','parameters_here');

window size

Using target blank opens a new browser window that the user can resize to their needs. This is best for new pages that contain text, as using specified dimensions may not be correct for a user's text-size settings. It depends on what you have in the new window. IMHO about the only justifiable reason for using a pop-up is to provide parallel comparison. That is, if you have a process that requires several screens to get through, and the user would benefit from having a seperate window with the step-by-steps. I have 1 pop-up window on my site that I use window.open() for. It's for an image that has fixed pixel dimensions. I have it open without a menubar, statusbar, or scrollbars. It's not resizable and has fixed dimensions. Generally these are qualities that make pop-ps annoying to users. If you are opening anything other than a fixed dimension image, you should provide the user those options. Come to think of it, if a user at my site decides to "zoom in" the image, they will need the resize option and/or scrollbars, time for me to change that I have a few external links on the site where I use target="_blank" so users can see related information without losing their place. Whatever technique you use you should ensure the user is aware that a new window will open so they won't be "surpised", pleasantly or otherwise.

google map

Actually, I meant the browsers right-click zoom, not a google maps "zoom" feature. Using window.open for this would be OK, but I would still use resizable=yes, scrollbars=yes in the parameters just in case.